Wednesday 7 September 2011

No Bugs, Warm Weather, BC in September

After one of the wettest, coolest summers on record, read no forest fires which for British Columbia is a first, it finally got hot towards the end of August. Now a quick geography lesson for you who are uneducated in all things BC.

Roughly the size of California, Oregon and Washington. 6% arable land which means it is mostly mountains covered with bush,the common term for everything big or small that grows out of the ground. 70% of the total population(4.4mil.) are squished into a tiny spot in the SW corner close to the US border so they can recreate by shopping leaving the rest of the place fairly unspoiled and unpopulated for us that like to camp.

Sounds like a perfect place to go camping.

Leave home to go north to meet friends in the Chilcotin area, cowboy country, west of Willy's Puddle(William's Lake) east of the coast range.

We take a detour to Whisler/Pemberton area and go hiking up to Joffre Lakes PP which is on the Duffey Lake road(hwy#99)
This is the first lake that you come to off the road. About a 10 minuit walk. Sorry everything looks washed out but normally at this time of year the snow is quite brown so they hire choppers to drop whitewash on the glaciers so it will look good for the tourists. My camera was set for the old snow.Of ya, and they dump aquamarine dye in the lake.
This is the upper Joffre lake where the campsite is.About a 1.5 hour rough hike from trailhead if you are fit.No Johnny, we can't drive our class A up here.
Always year round snow and ice. Natures A/C.
Ruudie thinks snow is almost as good as a glacier fed lake.
Did I already say that BC has a few mountains? About 1 hour drive to Whisler(2010 winter olympic venue)

Looking down on Pemberton and the airport.Do blondes really have more fun?We are now in the campsite at Chilco Lake. Few people here cuz it is a rough road coming in. Big lake(80kms), glacier fed and at the foot of the coast rangeHike up in an old burn on our way to the potato range. Nobody here but us and the grizzlies. By the way, there is a large concentration of bears now because of the salmon spawning.They have come up the Fraser River over 1000kms just to spawn and feed the bears.Looking over at range above Tatlyoko Lake.More lake, more mountains.Snow is not washed out. I guess they haven't gotten around to white washing the glaciers yet.Chilco river from the bridge. We bike back to campsite and launch canoes.Heading out for some white water fun. Class 2+ later.Water is cold and clear. Just like a beer commercialCatching a fish. That's the second best thing I like to do.What are you guy's thinking? You know drinking beer is my favorite thing.Shuttling canoes.Typical camping foto. People filling their faces with food and beverages.Grizz exiting our camp. Not very sociable.Same grizz swimming lake in front of campsite. Ice cold, swam 1 km across ,shook and waddled down the lake eating dead salmon on the way. We move to another campsite on Horn Lake. Like all the others, pit toilets,no other amenities, true road camping. Very nice. Few people on or around the lake and this is a long weekend.Mrs. Crosscheck is our main engine.There are thousands of lakes in this area. Great fishing.Next day we hike up above Bluff Lake. Thats the blue lake down there. The parks people dump aquamarine dye in them for the tourists.Mrs. Crosscheck playing Go Go Go Stop.Ruudie says," Not more mountains. Did you say we are 4 hours from the truck?"They say if you could lay BC flat, it would cover half of Canada.Further west, the mountains get higher, the glaciers bigger and the access is nil.Ok Ok so the foto is a bit smaltzy but Mr.and Mrs. Crosscheck want to say come on up to BC, bring your bug dope in summer, long johns in the fall, evenings are cool so no A/C needed,lots of boondocking, wish you were here.

Dave